Week #26

Forty Weeks ~ Sacred Story

Week 26 Prayer Exercises

Encouragements & Wisdom

In addition to this week’s prayer materials, there are new Encouragements and Wisdom for Week 26 (PDF).

Part Two
Building Sacred Story Prayer Practice

1 I visualize the week ahead and plan how I will engage my 15-minute prayer times. I resolve in my heart to allow God to help me be faithful to these set times of prayer. To increase my fidelity, I also resolve to spend no more and no less than 15-minutes in any formal prayer period.

2 For week twenty-six I am invited to continue a life-long process of praying the five meditations of Sacred Story prayer. I will enter this prayer at least once daily as St. Ignatius suggested.

3 I will personalize Meditations One, Two, Three, Four and Five: Creation, Presence, Memory, Mercy and Eternity.

I will awaken to the present moment.
I will awaken to my spiritual nature.
I will not make any decisions based on fear.
I will practice Sacramental Reconciliation monthly.

Focus Affirmation for Week Twenty-Six

I will say this affirmation aloud once daily:

The urge to stop Sacred Story practice
always comes before my greatest breakthroughs.

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Read this at the beginning of the week

Ongoing Awakening to Sacred Story Prayer

A very significant exercise for us in the first weeks of Sacred Story was finding the personal name for God that touches our hearts. Praying to God by saying this name often continues to be a powerful spiritual experience. Personalizing prayer and our relationship with God is an essential step in deepening our understanding of, and belief in, the God who is lovingly present to us each day of our lives.

Take what you are learning from praying with your personal name for God to understand why it is important to personalize the five meditations of Sacred Story. This week, you are invited to write your own single sentence for each of the meditations in Sacred Story. You are invited to continue working on this exercise until you “know” each of your sentences “by heart.” In this exercise, you are personalizing the Sacred Story of creation, the Fall and our redemption in Christ to your own life story.

Engage all the other disciplines associated with Sacred Story prayer as part of your daily practice: On Waking, During the Day Consciousness Exercise, Journal, and On Retiring Exercise. Personalize Creation, Presence, Memory, Mercy and Eternity for the 15-minute sessions this week

Prayer Exercise—Continue praying your 15-minute Creation-Presence-Memory-Mercy-Eternity prayer & complete writing your own one-sentence version of each meditation of Sacred Story prayer. Use the blank space provided on the next page or write the sentences in your personal journal.

CREATION

PRESENCE

MEMORY

MERCY

ETERNITY

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Come, children, listen to me;
I will teach you fear of the LORD.
Who is the man who delights in life,
who loves to see the good days?
Keep your tongue from evil,
your lips from speaking lies.
Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are directed toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
The Lord’s face is against evildoers
to wipe out their memory from the earth.

The righteous cry out, the Lord hears
and he rescues them from all their afflictions.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted,
And saves those whose spirit is crushed.

(Ps 34: 12-19)